The teach-in is a rebuttal to Jay's recent comments during an interview withThe New York Times'T Style magazine, in which he suggested that the spirit of OWS is un-American. In the article*,* Zadie Smith wrote:

[Jay-Z] gets a little agitated when the subject of Zuccotti Park comes up: "What's the thing on the wall, what are you fighting for?" He says he told Russell Simmons, the rap mogul, the same: "I'm not going to a park and picnic, I have no idea what to do, I don't know what the fight is about. What do we want, do you know?"

Jay-Z likes clarity: "I think all those things need to really declare themselves a bit more clearly. Because when you just say that 'the one percent is that,' that's not true. Yeah, the one percent that's robbing people, and deceiving people, these fixed mortgages and all these things, and then taking their home away from them, that's criminal, that’s bad. Not being an entrepreneur. This is free enterprise. This is what America is built on."

The Occupy Guitarmy's teach-in will offer "a sincere answer to Jay's question," beginning at 6 p.m. and also including a musical performance. On Tumblr, the Guitarmy wrote:

We have spent one year on the streets organizing for exactly the things Jay rapped about in his early days, ending urban poverty, ending Stop & Frisk and police use of lethal force, of returning dignity and hope to the everyday people of New York City. These are simple civil rights issues we know Jay-Z must support, and we would love to help open his heart and mind to the work Occupy has helped do in his own former communities.